Most Soulslikes feel very lonely, as you play as one of the last warriors willing to venture through a blighted, war-torn world long after it was ruined. Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember’s demon-infested Wuxia world doesn’t exactly feel optimistic, but it is more lively, colorful, and lived-in.
We got a taste of that when Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo released a public alpha of the game earlier this year, and it was reinforced when I went hands-on with a new section of the game for two hours and spoke to its developers.
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If playing through the first game’s recent Nintendo Switch 2 port or Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s deflect-heavy combat got you in the mood for more parry-filled action games, then Wo Long 2 should be on your radar as we head into 2027. With this sequel, Team Ninja may finally establish Wo Long as a worthy Dark Souls franchise competitor on the same level as Nioh.
Wo Long 2 aims to be bigger and better than the first.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen Team Ninja’s Soulslikes get bigger in scale. Rise of the Ronin was a full-on open-world game, while Nioh 3 featured more open-ended areas than its linear predecessors. Wo Long 2 also broadens its level design with what Koei Tecmo calls an “open-field” approach. My demo was still fairly linear as I made my way objective to objective, but I ventured through a large naval battlefield and then an island with many winding corridors and optional fights.
Producer Masakazu Hirayama says Team Ninja’s work on Nioh 3 and Rise of the Ronin influenced Wo Long 2‘s open-field design tendencies, but argues the team embraced it because they wanted its Three Kingdoms-inspired journey to be “very grand.” He also said that the developers “didn’t want the player to be overwhelmed with all these different situations, so making sure there was a sufficient, but not overwhelming, amount of all these things that you could do on the open field was something difficult for us.”
Development Producer Masaaki Yamagiwa added that this approach allowed the team to add a lot of new actions to exploration and combat to account for the added space. That’s reflected in the big new addition to combat in Wo Long 2: Insight Skills. Like its predecessor, Wo Long 2 is a fast-paced Soulslike that encourages players to parry as much as possible. By holding down the right bumper during combat, players can access Insight Deflect, Insight Jump, and new aerial and group attack skills that make it easier to turn the tide of battle in your favor.
“In Chinese martial arts, Chinese battle scenes tend to be very action-heavy, back-and-forthy, and that’s something we definitely wanted to implement into this game,” Yamagiwa explained when asked about what makes for a good video game parry. “When you do a parry, we wanted it to change the tide of battle.” I dropped off playing the original Wo Long fairly quickly, but don’t think that’ll be an issue with the sequel, as I find its combat and parries way more satisfying than the first game’s
A Wo Long 2 boss’ surprising inspiration
Over two hours, I fought my way across battleships and the red cliffs of a demonic island. I occasionally fought alongside other characters, so I didn’t feel alone, and I was struck by how vibrant the level design was as I moved from ship to ship across the sea, then platformed around lava on the island. Wo Long 2 is still very difficult, but was surprisingly welcome in a way that made me want to play more.
It all culminated in a boss fight against a giant insectoid homunculus creature called Wugu. It shot webs at me like a spider, flew around with bee wings, and repeatedly struck me with a scorpion-claw hand. I wasn’t able to beat this boss in the time allotted, but I did learn that it had a surprising place source of inspiration: a form of Japanese witchcraft called Kodoku.
“It’s a thing where people get a pot and throw all these different kinds of insects in there, and the idea is that the last surviving insect is the strongest insect,” Yamagiwa explained through a translator, who added a bit of context from unconnected anime.
“There is a very specific thing in Inuyasha where they throw all the different Yokai in there, and this emerging Yokai is this amalgamation of all the different Yokai that got knocked in there and came out of the pot, and that’s basically where we got the design inspiration for this boss,” he concluded.
That Koduku approach to the boss design also feels like it reflects Team Ninja’s approach to game design for this sequel. Wo Long 2 takes bits and pieces that worked in its predecessor, FromSoftware Soulslikes, and feedback from pre-release playtests to create something new. Rather than create something grotesquely patchwork, it’s instead shaping up to be a greatest hits of Team Ninja’s Soulslikes strengths.
Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember has a promising road to launch.
We still have several months to go until release, but I’m already enjoying Wo Long 2 much more than its predecessor. Soulslikes are hit-and-miss for me, as I can find their tough combat and depressing worlds off-putting at times, but Wo Long 2’s broader levels, aggressive combat, and colorful approach to the genre are enticing me.
Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember will be released on March 4, 2027. Between now and release, Yamagiwa says the developers are prioritizing incorporating feedback from the alpha demo. The most derided part of the game was its performance, which I can vouch was improved in what I played.
Yamagiwa elaborated, “The reason we released the alpha build to be played by the public was so we could receive this feedback. We wanted to show off the game a little earlier so we could get feedback earlier so we can start working on the things that need to be worked on from an earlier stage”
Disclaimer: Koei Tecmo and One PR paid for But Why Tho?’s travel to and accommodation at the preview event where we played Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember. They had no input on the opinions expressed in this editorial coverage.
